Garcia extends Cardinals best starting streak since 1993

The St. Louis Cardinals are working on run of five consecutive starts of seven innings allowing two or fewer runs.

On a day when St. Louis Cardinals second-guessers are out in force following Saturday afternoon-night’s exciting, yet ultimately disappointing 20-inning home loss to the New York Mets, I want to ensure an exceptional outing by 23-year-old left-hander Jaime Garcia is not lost.

The Cardinals’ “fifth” starter looked more like the ace of the staff as he allowed just one soft hit in seven innings of work on Saturday. Garcia collected five strikeouts, yielded just two walks, but took the no-decision as the offense could not solve two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana. Garcia is off to a fantastic start this season, posting an ERA and WHIP of 0.69 and 0.77, respectively, in his first 13 innings. His .116 batting average against leads MLB.

From a team perspective, Garcia is the team’s fifth consecutive starter to go seven innings or more and allow two or fewer runs. In fact, in their most recent turns, four of the five starters yielded no unearned runs.

With Adam Wainwright set to start Sunday night in the conclusion of the Mets series, another long outing is needed to preserve the depleted bullpen coming off the 20-inning marathon.

Cardinals, five consecutive starters, seven or more innings, two earned runs or fewer

The current feat is something that hasn’t occurred for the team in over 17 years.

It happened twice in 1993 with Rheal Cormier, Bob Tewksbury, Rene Arocha and Donovan Osborne participating both times. Joe Magrane and Allen Watson were the other starters, in April to start that season and later in August, respectively.